Climate change causing havoc for global water cycle

CLIMATE change is spurring increasingly erratic and extreme swings between deluge and drought globally, with cascading repercussions for societies, the UN warned on Thursday.

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The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said in a report that the world’s water cycle was becoming ever more unpredictable, with shrinking glaciers, droughts, unbalanced river basins and severe floods wreaking havoc.

“The world’s water resources are under pressure from growing demand, and at the same time, we are seeing more water-related hazards,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in Geneva.

The agency’s annual State of Global Water Resources report “shows quite clearly that the water cycle has become increasingly erratic and extreme,” she said, pointing to the “cascading impacts on infrastructure, agriculture, energy, health and economic activities”.

Last year was the hottest on record, leading to prolonged droughts in northern parts of South America, the Amazon Basin and southern Africa, the report said.